Contents

Grissom, Catherine and Sara investigate an ice hockey player who dies in the middle of the game. Meanwhile, Warrick and Nick investigate the apparent drug-related death of a saxophone player at one of the local casinos.

Terry Rivers, an ice hockey player, cuts his face during the game, and requires stitches and some tablets. Despite the on site doctor advising he doesn't go back on the ice, Terry does anyway, and in the 3rd period of the game, dies after having his throat cut. Grissom and Sara process the court, while Catherine talks with Tommy,a teammate of Terry who has lost a tooth and comments on the violence of the game. Sara and Grissom share a moment when discussing baseball, when Sara says 'Since when did you appreciate beauty?' and Grissom replies 'Since I met you'. They find a tooth fragment and attempt to find the whole tooth.

Meanwhile Nick and Warrick investigate the death of Stan, a backup bass player in a casino, and Warrick stares at the beautiful singer Lillie. Stan has all the signs of someone who has overdosed, and Warrick finds two coasters but only one glass. He takes the spare coaster and a contact lense he has found back to the lab.

Doc Robbins comments on how Terry had many injuries and seemed to like the 'battle scars' while Grissom says he was a stockbroker when not playing ice hockey. Catherine talks to Jane Gallagher to played for the opposing team but despite her great peripheral vision she didn't see what happened to him. She says while her team disliked Terry, his own team hated him.

The white powder that Stan had been taking is 91% pure heroin, which is too pure to be of much value. The only reason it would be given to anyone is for the purpose of killing them. In the rubbish is the needle used, wrapped in Lillie's scarf, but she says anyone could have taken the scarf and she has nothing to hide.

Catherine finds semen on Terry's bed and suggests he slept with many different women commenting that the 3 things in his life were 'pucks, bucks and....chicks'. Greg and Sara examine the players' equipment and find that the players skated through the blood pool. They find splatter on Jane's boot blade, and also her blades are sharpened more than necessary- making it harder for her play on them. They found out all Terry's team had lost money they had invested in him, and that Jane used to play for Terry's team, the Rat Pack. They suggest she killed Terry but she vomits all over the floor. When she goes to get it cleaned up, Grissom gets a sample, not believing her story of having eaten bad shrimp the previous night. They find out she is pregnant, and Sara suggests the father is Terry.

Nick and Warrick talk to Dig, a former junkie who says he threw away the needle so that Stan's son wouldn't know he had died of an overdose. Lillie finds Warrick playing the piano, a piece he composed himself. The two are obviously attracted to each other.

Grissom and Sara find semen and a toenail in Jane's bed and match it to the tooth they found before- Tommy's tooth. He says he treated Jane better than Terry ever did and this is one of the reasons he [Tommy] hated him. Tommy is captain of the Rat Pack and Sara suggests he got all the team to pile on Terry so that no one gets the blame for his murder. He denies this and seems delighted and surprised when they tell him Jane is pregnant. However she has also been sleeping with Terry.

Warrick discovers that the bartender at the club is the drug dealer, hiding the drugs between two coasters. This shows there wasn't another person with Stan, it was just him. Nick says the Lillie must also be taking drugs as she had two coasters, and he and Warrick argue, as Warrick doesn't want Lillie to be involved.

Doc Robbins says Terry had a heart condition and that he took quinine which would probably have caused his death. Jane is ruled out as a suspect as the slit throat was just an accident, but they realise it was the on-site doctor who had ordered the quinine. The doctor had previously been dating Jane, and was jealous of Terry, as well as thinking he was the father of her baby. He gave Terry the quinine knowing his heart would fail. Grissom informs him Tommy is the father and he killed the wrong man.

Warrick and Lillie talk but he sees the needle marks in her arm and says life is too short to be involved with drugs. He says a sad goodbye and then goes to the casino. He sits down and begins to play, but is joined by Nick. When he asks what Nick is doing there Nick says 'I'm playing cards...with my friend.'